Meet Michael Bergeron: NH's Salesman-In-Chief

Background

Michael Bergeron is Business Development Manager for the New Hampshire Department of Resources and Economic Development (DRED). He’s been at DRED since 1997. A large part of Bergeron’s job involves enticing

NH Department Of Resources And Economic Development

Michael Bergeron: New Hampshire's Salesman-In-Chief

businesses from other states and Canada to relocate to New Hampshire, which has led the Boston Globe to label him a business “thief.” Bergeron says that unlike many other states, New Hampshire doesn’t offer special deals to get companies to move. Instead, he says the state creates a consistently hospitable business climate with its low tax burden.

Overall, the state’s strategy appears to be working. In a recent study, the Massachusetts-based Pioneer Institute found nearly 1,500 of the state’s businesses left the Bay State for New Hampshire from 1990-2007. But that doesn’t mean businesses don’t leave New Hampshire, either. The same study found 679 Granite State businesses decamped to Massachusetts during the same period. Still, it’s a net gain of 758 firms for New Hampshire…just from Massachusetts.

Convincing businesses to make the move is a long-term proposition; Bergeron says it can take up to five years, from start to finish. At this point, he says he’s interested in bringing more businesses from Quebec into the North Country, to help jumpstart the region’s depressed economy.

Latest Posts

December 23, 2011

When New Hampshire politicians and business-types talk about “economic development,” they often mean touting the so-called “New Hampshire Advantage.” Among other things, that’s overall low–or in many cases, no–taxes, an educated workforce, and that amorphous “quality of life” distinction. But “economic development” in the Granite State also means using the much-vaunted New Hampshire Advantage as [...]

August 23, 2011

Recently, State Impact examined New Hampshire’s economic development strategies and compared them to what Massachusetts is doing. “Six Ways To Look At How NH Does — And Doesn’t — Attract Economic Development” has been one of our most popular posts since the site went live late last month. Our post, in turn, was inspired by a Boston [...]

August 17, 2011

With the imminent closure of the Balsams Grand Resort in Dixville Notch, the issue of economic development in the North Country is once again on the state’s radar screen. The pulp mill industry is all but dead, along with a proposed large-scale biofuel plant. These complications mean that when the Balsams shutters next month, the [...]

July 29, 2011

The lead of Jen Abelson’s Boston Globe piece reads like a spy novel: “New Hampshire pays Michael Bergeron to be a full-time thief, sending him across the border in an unmarked black sedan to poach Massachusetts companies. To help keep his missions undercover, the business recruiter even scraped the New Hampshire state seal off his [...]